Has Harv_E finally lost it? the theme is a NASA vehicle for exploring other planets. He has also gotten paranoid and is banning inactive members and requiring that we e-mail him before we can register, now that he has shut down auto-registration., I have been able to register 2 new usernames despite this. I thought the goal of a website was to try to get more members, not make it hard to join. ,oh and that theme, they have already done it with the moon car in the 1st Peugeot Design contest, and turned out to be a dumb idea.
Yeah, but his site has had more than it's share of retards and flamers on there. Perhaps he's just trying to clean up the forums by being a little more selective.
The reason for the drama is the American Automotive industry is in a crisis it may not survive. People are stating to believe that the Asians can build a better car for a lower price, Thus Americans can't sell a car at a price, a profit can be made upon.
What we need is a young man to come forward with a design for a car, that is so good, it's beauty will cast a spell on potential buyers that will MAKE them think they must have it, and even though it's American they will buy it anyway!
You may think this is impossible, but then everbody thought it was impossible to pull excalibur out of the stone, until King Arthur showed them it could be done. Our design schools have been trying to produce such a man, but they have been failing for so long, we are forced to conclude, they just can't do it. Therefore GOOD design contests are necessary to give this man an opportunity to distinguish himself from all the great-designer wannabees. The theme of a good contest ( or shall I say the brief) Presents it's contestants with a challenge they will fail to achieve, except for the winner who will pull it off ( whilst everyone else will be pulling it on, or perhaps puling on it )
I admire your enthusiasm but I'm going to assume from your comments that you are young and have never been inside a design studio. If you have then you would know that there are dozens of "Arthurs" inside each major studio. The talent behind those doors is so staggering I'm sure you would wet yourself if you ever had to sketch with them.
Design is not the main reason the auto industry is in dire straights. If you think Ford is losing money because guys like Camilo Pardo can't design you are dead wrong. In fact, I'd venture to say that you insult them all indirectly with such naivety.
These little online design contests and sketch groups are great practice and you should do as many as possible to sharpen your skills but you should remember that they are merely a warmup exercise for beginners. Use them to practice and not to gauge your competition because the real talent is too busy at work to enter them. Trust me when I say that the very, very best work at S&D isn't even 1/1,000th compared to the work being done by pro's inside design studios across the US and Europe.
Keep your passion but try not to take online contests too seriously. I'm not knocking you but I think you need to experience a little more. Or if you don't like it put together a site and start your own.
After looking at the 1st few sketches, I see what Harv_E is really doing. there is a method to his madness. This has to do with Harv's preoccupation with a member who has sometimes been called X. Apparently one of the regulars there uses more than one identity, and Harv is trying to figure out which one it is. When this person posts his drawings, he uses the identity of a friendly guy who is nice to the other people. He also avoids using big words and saying anything clever. This way his contest entries will recieve favorable ratings, from the other guys. When he posts his computer generated images he uses a different identity, he also changes his identity when he wants to say something witty or arrogant, or make fun of the other guys. This way the other members won't hate the user that posts his drawings and vote against his entries. By using the NASA theme, Harv can distinguish X from those retards and flamers at that site ( the ones guitarslinger was talking about ) This design challenge is one that X can win by using his superior intelligence. While the other guys are drawing those things that look like props from a science fiction movie, X will use his knowledge of automotive history and remember the car that NASA had made for the astronauts to drive on the moon, I'm not kidding ,this happened in real life, back in the 1970s. As an engineer Harv_E would have read about this car, and how the most important thing the engineers had to do was make the car as lightweight as possible. The car looked like it was missing all the parts except the chassis and the wheels. It had to be carried into space on top of a rocket, which was also carrying the Apollo space capsule and the LEM, so it was just not possible to add even a few pounds of coachwork to make the car look good. Therefore we can assume that X will be the only entrant who will take this need for lightness into account, and invent some kind of inflatable car, that will not exceed the Maximum weight, that NASA would specify in the brief. Therefore, Harv will see the sci-fi vehicles that will be entered by the members who can draw well ,but are not smart enough to think up a car that NASA would want to buy. And he can compare these to X's concept, the ultralight-weight car with big tires that won't get stuck in the dust one would find on the surface of the Moon or Mars. This way Harv can identify which Drawing was done by X. Even if X does'nt fall for Harve's trick, Harv_E can still win the contest because he will be the only engineer there who can come up with a car that will be light enough to be on-theme.
Originally posted by aflo: sid99, Are you for real??
Yeah I think he just did
"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. " Vexed & Glorious as ever _________________________ ---------GRAFFITITECH---------
